MANILA, September 30, 2010 — The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved today an additional financing of US$59.1 million to expand the Kapitbisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) Project. The Project empowers local communities in targeted poor areas to achieve improved access to basic public services and to participate in more inclusive local planning and budgeting.
Using a community-driven development (CDD) approach, the KALAHI-CIDSS helps poor communities develop the necessary skills and provides them with resources to select, implement, and sustain small-scale community infrastructure projects and social services.
Implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) since December 2002, the original KALAHI-CIDSS Project has benefitted 1.1 million households in 4,229 barangays (villages), covering 184 municipalities in the country’s 42 poorest provinces.
It has financed 5,326 community sub-projects including basic social services facilities, such as water systems, school buildings, health and day care centers; access roads and small bridges; and environmental and disaster control infrastructure.
The additional financing will expand the Project's reach to a total of 220 municipalities that have a poverty incidence of 50 percent or greater, within the provinces already covered.
DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman welcomed the approval of additional financing for the KALAHI-CIDSS, stressing that the project supports President Benigno S. Aquino III’s platform of people empowerment, transparency, and poverty reduction.
“KALAHI-CIDSS trains villagers in project planning, technical design, financial management and procurement, thus building a cadre of future capable leaders at the local level,” said Secretary Soliman. "It gives poor people a voice in the development process as they learn how to engage their local governments more effectively in requesting funding and other support to help address local development priorities."
Secretary Soliman said the CDD approach supported by the KALAHI-CIDSS is one of the “three legs of convergence” for enhancing the capacity of the poor to escape poverty. The other two are the conditional cash transfer program (called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) and a sustainable livelihoods program.
Secretary Soliman added: “When local residents come together to discuss their own problems and find solutions to these common challenges, programs and projects are sustained and implemented effectively and in the most transparent manner. That’s the advantage of community-driven development approaches like the KALAHI-CIDSS.”
The additional financing supports two enhanced implementation modalities, including:
- An LGU-led Community Driven Development (CDD) approach that would support a more devolved, cost-effective implementation, and give greater responsibility and authority to municipalities over program implementation while retaining the DSWD’s monitoring and oversight functions.
- The piloting of the KALAHI-CIDSS in eight selected urban poor communities, which would respond to their specific concerns, such as land tenure, housing, resettlement, livelihoods, urban sanitation, and other environmental issues.
World Bank Country Director Bert Hofman said that the proposed activities in the additional financing are fully consistent with the Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy for 2010-12: “The Project fully supports the overall objective of making growth work for the poor by improving the delivery of basic public services to poor areas, as well as enhancing transparency and accountability at the local level.”
The original financing was approved by the Board in December 2002. Last year, the Project’s closing was extended for one year until May 2010 to provide sufficient time for the completion of activities. The additional financing will last until May 31, 2013.
Mr. Hofman says that the additional financing would contribute to the scaling-up of the KALAHI-CIDSS towards becoming a fully nationwide Community-Driven Development (CDD) program.
“CDD approaches are an important part of World Bank support in the Philippines and are one of the most effective means of promoting the demand for better local governance,” Mr. Hofman said.
Part of the recently approved grant from the Millennium Challenge Corporation will also be devoted to finance the expansion of the KALAHI-CIDSS.
